MSPCGT: It's a Centennial Wrap!

To complete the Michigan State Park CENTENNIAL GeoTour during the CENTENNIAL year, TaGeez, ShelleyJean and I made two last cache runs in December.

But first... we needed to dress appropriately. This is what every geocacher is wearing this season.

Early December found us at Fort Custer and Lake Hudson State Parks for a letterbox and two more Traditionals. The ground is hard and the ponds almost frozen over. We spied 3 Tundra swans overhead.

 *** This post is riddled with spoilers! ***

Fort Custer - Letterbox

Fort Custer - Gadget Cache

The water looks so frigid but the seagulls and one excitable Golden Retriever thought this was heaven.

Fort Custer Lake

With a late start and an early sunset, we had to end our adventure early and leave the remaining 4 parks for another day.  We were anxious to get out of the woods as the roads were lined with Hunter's trucks and that wind off the lake numbed our toes. Ah, caching in Michigan.

Lake Hudson

One week later we headed out in snow flurries to tackle.. er... enjoy the last four parks! FOUR LEFT!

First stop of the day, and we faced snow flurries when leaving the Detroit area. Luckily, this was the shortest walk today. Quick find and sign & then we continued down the path to see the frozen lake. 

WJ Hayes State Park

Afterwards, since we were in the Irish Hills, we stopped to see the trabejo rustico at St Joseph’s Cemetery.

Do you see that "fencing" in the above and below pictures? They're made of cement! 

"The trabajo rustico (rustic work)—or faux bois (imitation wood) technique used natural elements as inspiration for cement creations."

There is a another magical version of trabajo rustico less then a mile down the road at McCourtie Park.

Next up was Watkins State Park. One thing you need to know about this park... there is no restroom facilities or places of concealment.  Just wanted to point that out. In case you are asking... for a friend.

Fascinating to see the hundreds of Canadian geese on the almost-frozen lake on the way in.  This was the first time I've experienced a Natural Beauty Road in a state park.

This was a lovely, gradual walk up the hill to the cache.  It was worth the cold wind off the slope, and I'm grateful we didn't do this in the direct summer sun.

Watkins Lake State Park

*** DID I MENTION SPOILERS? ***

Do you see it?

How about now? 

Brighton Recreation was unremarkable except for two things: First, we didn't get shot, and, second, it was state park #99. Luckily, as a quicky near home, that gave us plenty of time at Michigan State Park #100: Meridian-Baseline State Park!

You could feel the change in the air, and we knew it was going to be a good party when Signal found a disco ball at the first cache!

Squirrel Night Club GC84JH2

As we were getting down to the single digits, we looked at the remaining caches and decided this would be our final MSPCGT cache to wrap our fabulous 6 month journey! Meridian-Baseline had the highest favorite points among the remaining with a new Virtual as a bonus. This was the right choice.

When we hit ground zero, there was no surprise where the final was hid. Even with the icy slopes and frozen river, we gingerly made our ways down to GZ.... 

... where the monster under the bridge screamed and warned us to go back. What a hoot!

WE DID IT!

Team SST completed the Michigan State Park Centennial GeoTour!

100 Michigan State Parks discovered, explored and enjoyed!

We kept to our mission: To visit and enjoy all the 100 Michigan State Parks on the tour, and we completed it within the Centennial year! 

Honestly, this was like no other experience, and our state is so ABSOLUTELY AMAZING! 

Sand Dunes! So otherworldly! Swamps and coastlines and old-growth forests. Beaches made of Petoskey stones, ankle-breakers, and silty sand. Lighthouses! Flatland and hills and a mountain, to boot. Waterfalls and rapids and lakes in the clouds with ridges that were oh so high! Historic forts, mining towns, logging encampments, and CCC sites, too.

We sagged under the sun, tunneled under trees, cached in the bitter rains and were pelted by ice. We experienced our state in all four seasons (I'm counting 'construction season', too).  Pasties and Danish pastries and a bakery run by monks! American Bald Eagles, Tundra swans, and, oh, so many Sandhill cranes! A coyote!

Gadget caches and birdhouses and that amazing raft at Kitch-iti-kipi! Letterboxes on Lake Michigan, ammo cans along Lake Superior, bugs on Lake Huron, and one lonely cache on Lake Erie. We wandered along sand dunes for wherigos and watched amazing wind surfers and plovers at our Earth Cache.  

    

Thank you to the Michigan DNR and Michigan Geocaching Organization for creating such an amazing adventure!

*

To celebrate this accomplishment, we continued down this path for the new Virtual, Meridian-Baseline State Historical Park GC7B70X.  I think I shared enough spoilers in this post so I'll let the final images do the talking.

And thank you to everyone who followed along on our adventure.

Happy New Year!